Transportation dilemma

[Figment78]

We are staying at the Boardwalk for our upcoming September trip. We have a three resort ADRs planned. From past experience, we realize it can take longer to get from resort-to-resort and so were planning to take a cab for legs of the trip that is not to/from a park (have done this before). When I went online to book our towncar transfer this morning, I found an email from Southwest advertising a rental car Rapid Rewards special that got me wondering if it would make more sense for us to rent a car this trip. The cost is a little cheaper for the rental vs. the towncar + a few cab rides.

My main question for everyone is how is the transportation from the Boardwalk hotel to MK and AK? Does the bus make several stops at the BC/YC, Swan and Dolphin? If we got a car for the purpose of resort-hopping, I would consider taking it to the MK too if the BWI buses share with all the epcot resorts.

My second question is about parking at the TTC. Does anyone have any guesses as to how long would you estimate it to take to drive to the TTC from the Boardwalk and then take the resort monorail to say, the Contemporary or Grand Floridian? We are going to GF for dinner and then MK after and I know we can't park at the GF and leave our car there (limited dining parking time only). If we don't rent a car, we were either going to take a cab to the GF and then just monorail to MK. (which does seem less complicated and faster now that I write it out....)

Thanks everyone!

[GrumpyFan]

Sounds like the rental car option might be good. We've done this sort of thing before without a rental car, but it requires a lot of extra time in advance of ADRs. In many cases in can take over an hour to go from resort to resort. However, the MK resorts might be slightly less since there are several transportation options.

The busses for Boardwalk are shared with Swan/Dolphin and Yacht/Beach Club, and Boardwalk is the last stop for pickup/dropoff. Sometimes they will run extra busses when crowds are heavy, but you should expect crowded busses at peak times.

I would figure about 15 minutes to drive from BW to TTC parking. Then another 10 minutes to go from tram/parking lot to Monoroal and GF.

A side note about the resort monorails. While most of the time they are pretty quick, they do have occasional delays that can make the boats a better option. We were once stuck on a monorail train on our way to Poly because they were taking a train off the line.

[KAT1811]

If the rental car is equal or cheaper than the towncar transfer and the cab rides I would go with the rental car. Why trouble yourself for more money?

[joelkfla]

The busses for Boardwalk are shared with Swan/Dolphin and Yacht/Beach Club, and Boardwalk is the last stop for pickup/dropoff.
Actually, for the MK, Boardwalk shares only with the Swan & Dolphin, and Boardwalk is the first stop.

For AK, in the a.m., it's also just Swan & Dolphin going to the park. After about 11 a.m. to the park, and all day returning from the park, all 5 Epcot resorts share the same AK bus, and BW is the last stop. Buses to and from AK also stop at Blizzard Beach most of the time.

For BW to GF, another option is bus to MK, and then enjoy the boat ride from MK to GF, which is a very pleasant ride.